Niš to get first sanitary landfill - regional study on waste management to be finished prior to May 2010

Thanks to USAID's MEGA programme, which finances designing of the regional study on waste management for the city of Niš, including the feasibility study, that city may start negotiations with potential investors on construction of the first sanitary landfill in Serbia's southern region already at the beginning of spring 2010.

That landill should be situated in the vicinity of Keleš, seven to eight kilometers away from the center of Niš and very close to the existing scrapyard. Collecting of bids of the companies that are interested in elaboration of the project is in progress.

- Financing will, most probably, be done by the system of public-private partnership, and the city will decide about which model of investment to use. In addition to the study for construction of the landfill, some concrete solution for waste treatment, such as burning, should also be found - the people from "Urban Intitute", which runs the MEGA programme, told "eKapija".

At the moment, every municipality in the south of Serbia independently collects waste in their local scrapyards. Niš and Doljevac have a joint dump, which was built in the 1960's, and it will be refurbished from the funds of the Environment Protection Fund. That landfill occupies about 20 ha, and it is not a sanitary one.

The city of Niš financed design of preliminary study on selection of the location for construction of regional landfill in 2007, and it was decided on that occasion that it should be built in the location of Keleš.